HavanaJournal.com: Cuba Politics

Expulsions of Cuban diplomats, past and present

Posted May 15, 2003 by publisher in Cuba Politics.
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By Cuban American National Foundation

A total of 14 Cuban diplomats have been expelled from the United States, including seven from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington and seven from Cuba’s U.N. Mission in New York, officials said Tuesday.

The identities of the diplomats ordered to leave Washington were not immediately released.

The highest-ranking Cuban expelled from the U.N. Mission was Adrián Francisco Delgado González, a counselor listed as No. 3 in the latest U.N. diplomatic directory. Another counselor, Alfredo Jose Perez Rivero, listed as No. 5, was also ordered to leave, U.S. officials said.

The five other diplomats ordered to leave were first secretary Helmut Domenech González, second secretary Enrique Miguel Mesa Levis, third secretary Miguel More Santana, and attache Juan Carlos Rodríguez Lueje, the officials said.

OTHER EXPULSIONS:

November 2002: Four Cuban diplomats are expelled from their posts in Washington and New York for alleged involvement with Ana Belen Montes, a U.S. senior intelligence analyst convicted and sentenced to a 25-year jail term on charges of spying for Cuba.
Ousted from Washington were Gustavo Machín Gomez, who variously served as a spokesman, first secretary or business affairs secretary; and Oscar Redondo Toledo, who kept a lower profile.

The Cubans based in New York were identified as Francisco González García, a counselor, and Carlos Augusto Suanes Flexas, a second secretary at the U.N. Mission.

February 2000: Jose Imperatori, a vice-consul at the Cuban Interests Section, was asked to leave the country following allegations linking him to a U.S. immigration official, Mariano Faget, who was accused of spying for Cuba.

December 1998: Three Cuban diplomats with links to a Miami spy ring are expelled from the U.N. Mission in New York. They include Eduardo Martínez Borbonet, first secretary who acted as liaison with the U.N. Development Program and UNICEF. The other two were Roberto Azanza Perez, third secretary, and Gonzalo Fernández Garay, an attache.

August 1996: Jose Luis Ponce, a spokesman at the Cuban Interests Section, is given one week to leave in retaliation for the de facto expulsion of a foreign service officer at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. Cuba refused to renew the one-year visa of Robin Meyer as she was accused of “activities incompatible with her diplomatic status.’‘

April 1995: Three Cuban diplomats in New York are expelled following a summer scuffle with Cuban exile protesters and New York police outside the Cuban Mission in Manhattan. Edmundo Suárez Hernández served as a counselor and the fourth-ranking diplomat in Cuba’s U.N. Mission. Saúl Hermida Griego served as a lower-ranking attache.

November 1992: Carlos Manuel Collazo Usallán, third secretary at the Cuban U.N. Mission, is ordered to leave on suspicion of being a spy. Collazo was linked to Francisco Avila, a double-agent who served as military chief for Alpha 66, the exile paramilitary organization based in Miami.

July 1987: Two Cuban diplomats are expelled for allegedly trying to recruit Cuban Americans as spies. They include Bienvenido Abierno, then acting chief of the Cuban Interests Section, and Virgilio Lora, a consular officer. The expulsion was originally cast by the State Department as retaliation for Cuban harassment of U.S. diplomats in Havana.

April 1983: Two Cuban U.N. diplomats are expelled after being accused of conducting ‘‘hostile intelligence activities’’ against the United States. Rolando Salup Canto served as third secretary and Joaquin Rodobaldo Penton Cejas served as an attache at the U.N. Mission.

August 1982: A Cuban U.N. diplomat, Juan Bandera Perez, is expelled on charges of illegally purchasing large quantities of electronics equipment. Bandera was an administrative assistant on temporary duty at the Cuban mission. He was ordered out of the country for violating the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

July 1982: Two Cuban diplomats in New York—Mario Monzon Barata and Jose Rodríguez Rodríguez—are expelled for buying and shipping advanced electronic equipment in violation of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.